With all the noise, screaming, yelling, and histrionics that fill the airwaves these days about EVs and their impending blob-like growth to swallow the automotive marketplace, it’s good to get a reminder about how wrong all that language is. Yes, EVs have grown into a still tiny part of the overall marketplace. That said, all indications are that toehold they currently have will actually shrink over the next couple of years. Every manufacturer of note has announced scale back plans, the pausing of projects, and reallocation of funds away from the vehicles that have been wrongheadedly pinned as the savior of humanity in the coming years. Why bother mentioning all this? Because the 2024 Mercedes-Benz GLS63 AMG is the type of rig that sits on the other end of the spectrum, you know, the end where the things that people actually want to buy sit.
For starters the sticker price on this 603hp, Emerald Green Metallic, loaded with options beast is $155,200. Before you slam your fist down in indignation understand that right now you can walk onto the lot of a Ford, Ram, or Chevrolet/GMC dealer and option a three-quarter or one ton pickup truck into the same financial zip code as this GLS63 AMG SUV. An F-450 Limited STARTS at $104,000. That’s still a long way from $155,200 but with dealer markup and additional options you can push it sky-high. So, if the money is your biggest take away here, you’ve missed the point. In 2023 Mercedes sold 8,989 EQS electric SUVs for the year. In the 4th quarter ALONE of 2023 they sold 7,552 GLS SUVs and while not all of them were packing the AMG greatness this one is, it tells a very clear story about what people want and what they are willing to pay to get it.
While we’ll touch on all aspects of the driving experience, we have to start with the drivetrain. Like all AMG models, the GLS gets a hand crafted engine. This one is a 4.0L V8 with twin turbos sitting in what would normally be the valley between the cylinder heads. The beast also has a hybrid assist mode which creates an overall package of 603hp and 627 lb-ft of torque. This is backed by a nine speed transmission and the power heads to all four corners with the trusty Mercedes 4Matic all wheel drive system doing the torque vectoring and management.
Call us all the names you want, but hitting the button to effectively open up the active exhaust, setting the transmission in sport mode, leaving the suspension in comfort and then hitting the streets is more fun than it should be. Coming in at just a shade over 6,000lbs, you experience the robustness of the construction of the GLS in a couple of ways. Firstly, it does not, nor should it feel like a Porsche 911. You’re aware, while driving, that the vehicle is large and heavy. It rolls along with confidence, never feels top heavy or like you are in a truck but it’s also no going to deceive you into thinking you’re going to hang with a Z06 around the bends.
The amount of sound proofing and noise reduction in the cab is just amazing and it lends a very powerful air to the entire GLS AMG experience. Other than the very nice rumble of the 4.0L V8, you do not get road noise, wind noise, or even passenger noise if you’re doing a proper job with the radio. Simply put, it feels like $155,200 as you’re rolling along. The one thing our knuckle dragging selves would like? More exhaust noise in the cab when the pipes are opened up in sport mode. Rolling the window down gives you the really beautiful residual note from the tailpipes but a few more dB in the cabin would be welcomed.
As far as exterior impressions, styling, and overall looks? The Emerald Green Metallic paint was very interesting. It is so dark that it fooled the majority of people initially into thinking it was black. Even in these photos, it’s sometimes hard to discern the exact color tone. It’s our opinion that if it is wearing an AMG badge, it should be a dark color. The AMG badge tells a story in an unto itself and the fact that the car which wears it has power for days and more capability than 99.99% of owners will ever tap into. A good dark, deep color choice backs that AMG badge and lineage up well in our estimation.
Mercedes is obviously a conservative company, generally speaking, when it comes to styling and the GLS is no different. This is what their buyers want. It is refined, it is muscular, and it’s not going to make the neighbors come running to the windows for its looks, but they may come peeking out when they hear the exhaust rumble by. There are plenty of big dollar SUVs out there with more dramatic styling, but for us? We like the classic refinement of the M-B approach.
The most expensive option on the whole rig are the wheels. The 23″ AMG monobloc forged rollers in matte black will run you $5,650 on their own. That’s a wild spend for wheels that didn’t really do a whole lot for us looks-wise. The darkness of the green paint matched with the matte wheels isn’t our favorite look. These wheels in a more argent color, maybe even polished up chrome, would really serves as some visual pop. The overriding darkness of the whole package wasn’t our favorite.
As this is a three-row SUV there’s room for days in the cabin. As you can see here, with the third row up (it is electronically controlled) rear space is still generous for whatever hauling you’d need to do. Whether that is food, small furniture, sporting equipment, you name it, it will fit. With the third row down, you can really employ the U (utility) in the SUV title. While we have to guess that a vehicle like this would typically not be used for any sort of actual taxing work, there’s ample room to move your kid into college or transport your vintage magazine collection to the local historical society if you’d need to.
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The interior is what is going to make or break a buyer’s experience with this level of purchase, right? If it does not FEEL like the money you are spending, chances are you’ll be seeking another option. From the materials to the layout, to the fact that the GLS has a scent injector in the HVAC system, the stops are out in the effort to make the driver and passengers understand that they’re cruising in style. The seats, both front and rear are very good and the Bahia Brown and Black exclusive Nappa Leather not only look classy and timeless, but the quality shines as well. The rear HVAC controls are easily reachable and the fact that the second row is a pair of captain’s chairs gives everyone ample room to get comfortable and adjust their seating position to the most suitable for their frame. We do have one bone to pick with the interior, though.
The steering wheel is ridiculous. There are more than 20 different buttons and functions, many redundant, built into or onto the steering wheel. There are the paddle shifters, there are small LED screens which are also dials to select drive modes (Sport + shown here) and the stop/start function as well as setting up the active exhaust. There’s radio buttons, home screen buttons, telephone buttons, cruise control, a button with a star on it that we never figured out, and the list goes on.
For a machine that is so refined and beautiful in its simplicity in every other way, the steering wheel is bizarre. If this thing were sitting in a dedicated sports car or high performance sedan designed to be fine tuned in its driving experience it would still likely be a mild annoyance but more sensible. In this thing? It’s just ludicrous and speaks to that need to make it “feel” like the buyer is getting every penny of their $155,200 back in some form.
On the plus side, we give props to the fact that the GLS AMG has a truly beautiful digital display screen that flows its way across the dash as well as tactile and easily used buttons for HVAC and other basic functions on the dash. Touch screens are not our favorite around here and while we understand many people do like them, giving the option of being able to hit a switch or physicl button is 100% better than having only the distracting touch screen to poke at. Outside of the clown car steering wheel, the interior is simple, classy, and refined.
Final impressions? The 2024 Mercedes-Benz GLS63 AMG is the most refined hot rod of an SUV we’ve ever driven, and we’ve driven many of them. It’s just loud enough, it’s just big enough, it’s just heavy enough, and it’s just brutally fast enough to make it a very fun machine to drive around. The fuel economy? The way we drove it we were able to get about 14-16mpg around town and with very little highway driving it was about 20 mph on flat ground and that dropped rapidly through the hills.
This is absolutely one of those automotive exploits that exists purely because there’s enough people in this country who want the size, the prestige, the horsepower, the speed, and the sound of a rig like this. Mercedes-Benz does not need to build this so much as no one needs to buy it, but isn’t it the most glorious thing that they do and that people cannot shovel their money out fast enough to get their hands on one?
The EVs we spoke about at the beginning of this piece will ever have the type of cache a machine like the GLS63 AMG has. Mercedes even seems to realize this, like every other manufacturer does at this point. Sure they may be faster, they may be packed with more tech than a spacecraft, but they do not strike at the hearts and minds of the general population like a rumbling, snarling, large, imposing looking battle wagon like this does. Depressing a rheostat to the floor and whizzing ahead of a guy in a Challenger R/T is one thing, opening up the exhaust in this monster and coming out of the hole at full wail and beating the same guy to the next stoplight is not just better with your exhaust bellowing into his grill, it’s worth about $155,200.
